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As 2017 ends, an important thing to keep in mind is the trends that have risen this year, especially if you are looking to capitalize on new successes in the coming year. The following list compiles some of the top trends of the year, explaining what they are and why you should keep them in mind.

Omni-Channel Marketing

Before this century, all buying decisions were made in-store. We only bought things we could physically touch and try on. Now, we have the internet, phones, TV and physical stores to contend with. Purchases that used to be a one-stop buy are now decided ahead of time after we’ve interacted with businesses in a variety of ways first.

This is known as “omni-channel” marketing. It focuses on providing a seamless purchasing experience across as many channels as possible to reach the target audience. For example, you might see a new product in a television commercial, research it on your mobile device while sitting on your couch, order it on your laptop, and then pick it up in-store. By using omni-channel marketing to your consumers, you can assure them that what you’re offering is what they need in a variety of ways, spelling more success for your business.

Personalized Advertising

Shared experiences can shape our perception of a product. Our opinion of a product and the enjoyment and value we get from it doesn’t just come from our personal contact with it. How we perceive a Mac computer, for example, is influenced by what we know about its brand, Apple.

Spotify’s internal creative team’s “Thanks, 2016. It’s been weird.” campaign played on the idea of shared experience. The Spotify team used the entirety of their user data to generate funny headlines for the campaign, including:

“Dear person who played ‘Sorry’ 42 times on Valentine’s Day, what did you do?”

“Dear person who made a playlist called ‘One Night Stand with Jeb Bush Like He’s a Bond Girl in a European Casino,’ We have so many questions.”

People see this, and some want to check out the business that is getting personal with its customers, and some want to get in on this personal action. Regardless, such a quirky and fun advertising campaign certainly sparks interest.

Agents for Social Change

While advertising influences our behavior as consumers, it also has the power to shape our aspirations and reinforce our values. Social media has prompted companies to shift away from delivering monologues to engaging in conversation, transforming the relationship between brand and buyer. This dynamic has made brands more human in the process as they focus on creating conversations about shared values, and combines principles found in both omni-channel marketing and personalized advertising.

Always’ SuperBowl ad, which went viral before it even aired, doesn’t reference feminine hygiene once. Instead, it focuses on the issue of female empowerment and the question “What does it mean to do something ‘like a girl’?” By approaching the advertisement from this angle, Always draws the main attention away from them by taking a stance, but draws attention selflessly back on the brand by standing as an agent for social change. Not only can a brand gain more customer loyalty from this type of advertisement, but it can also attract new customers that are invested in brands that share their alignment on issues.

Brand over Product

Outstream videos might not ring any bells to you right now, but 77% of digital advertising agencies have already reported that it is going to be critical to their client’s success in the years to come. Its sudden rise in popularity is because of the increasing internet users being annoyed with obstructive videos on the sites they’re visiting.

So what exactly are Outstream videos? They’re a new type of ad format that allows publishers to show video ads outside of actual players (i.e. in text line breaks or on the corners of a web page). This provides better user experience for the user as they are no longer forced to watch ads before they can access the main content or during their access of the main content. This means that they’re more likely to watch the entire ad, rather than wait 5 seconds to skip the ad and not remember anything at all.

Chatbots

WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger are already outpacing the world’s biggest social networks, and some experts predict, with a little help, they could even outdo search engines. This improvement comes in part from chatbots — customer service agents introduced to Facebook’s messenger platform earlier this year at the social network’s F8 conference. Since then, 18,000 bots have already been developed to help brands offer streamlined, individualized service through chat. Chatbots are software applications that mimic written human speech for the purpose of simulating a conversation or interaction with a real person.

Early adopters have seen some success with these bots, and people are spending increasingly more time in chat apps like messenger and WhatsApp (around 2.5 billion people use at least one messaging app, and by 2018 that could grow to 3.6 billion). Since Facebook recently loosened their restrictions on sending promotional content via chatbot, now is a good time to rethink how chatbots might fit into your marketing strategy.

The holiday season is already underway. Stellar marketing techniques can earn year-end success for businesses! Not sure where to start or how to up your game? Here’s a few tips for holiday visibility.

Get Personal, Behind the Scenes
Your audience always wants to see the people behind the brand. During the holidays, those who are celebrating will enjoy seeing others celebrating, too. Snap candid shots of decorated desks, bedecked halls, and coworkers in the holiday spirit.

Encourage Shared Holiday Photos
During the holiday season, most people’s thoughts turn to happy childhood memories. Encourage your audience to share their favorite memories and photos with your brand. Other ideas can include a unique branded hashtag for any social media accounts, such as #___celebrates____.

Change the Spotlight
One of the most powerful ways your brand can get noticed this season is to turn the spotlight onto someone else. Instead of posting simply about your brand non-stop, highlight a charity that your brand is supporting, and offer a way for your customers to lend their support, too.

Focus on Needs
Take some time to think about what special wants and needs your specific audience has this time of year. Better yet, ask a few of them. You could end up creating some powerful, useful content instead of more holiday dazzle.

Bring it Full Circle
Not everyone celebrates a religious holiday this time of the year; but, the vast majority of consumers do celebrate the New Year. It’s a time to look ahead and to reflect over the past year. Take the opportunity to tell your current and potential customers about your brand’s year. Tell them how the company grew, what you learned, and most importantly what you are planning for 2018.

Here at Edge, we’re throwing ourselves into the holiday spirit whole-heartedly! Check out our social media to stay updated with our festivities and what we’re doing this season!

It is fun to watch a community service campaign grow over the years! Edge Advertising Group has been in a fortunate position to be a part of the ever expanding Henderson Ford Toy Drive for the past seven years.

The beginnings of the toy drive came from Randy Henderson’s commitment to serving our youth. For example, long before the toy drive, he was already engaged in a youth ministry role, working with imprisoned juvenile offenders.

The annual toy drive started with collecting toys for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. During these early years of the drive, other businesses were added as collection sites, with an opportunity to spread the message further. The drive became one of the largest collections of toys for the Toys for Tots program.

Three years ago, through a well tenured Rochester ministry, Project Urge, we were introduced to an Atlanta based campaign for a Christmas Store concept with very low priced toys, to allow for individual selection and a sense of pride, coming from the purchase process. This effort was added to the recipient list of the Henderson Ford toy drive. The Henderson championed collection is also one of the largest supplies of toys to The Furnished 4 Life Christmas Store at the Wedge Market.

All along the way, the local media has been very helpful in spreading the news of the toy drives, through print, television, radio, and online communication sources.

The Henderson Ford Toy Drive today is an example of community service and collaboration within the business community to get the job done.

When choosing between a HTML and Content Management System (CMS) website platform, there are options to consider for the business or organization to have a positive short-term and long-term experience.

Do I want to update content and images on my own?
Do you want to be able to update content and images yourself, in an effort to save time and/or money? There are specific website platforms which allow for the content and images on website pages to be updated without having to know how to code, on platforms like WordPress or Drupal. A word of caution- consider the likelihood of these changes being made from within your business. Our experience is that best intentions do not necessarily come to fruition. Also, infrequency of updates has the staff always on the steep part of the learning curve, to complete the content and image changes. Plus, many websites which allow for ease of update are not flexible to accommodate all types of changes into the future. HTML websites do allow for almost limitless changes. So, be sure you will use the ease-of-update feature, before you give away other website attributes, especially in the long-term.

How much future flexibility do I want my website to have?
Some website platforms are more flexible than others; therefore, a decision needs to be made about planning for future changes. What business needs are foreseen, effecting the website into the future? Again, HTML websites offer the most flexibility.

Do I want to budget monthly for required updates to themes and plug-ins?
Content Management System (CMS – do-it-yourself editing) website platforms require regular and security updates which help the website to continue to perform, even perform better, and provide increased security from present-day hacking. These updates involve the platform, theme, and plug-ins and require some more advanced technical knowledge of the platform to manage the update process. Backups of the site should also be performed before and after each update to minimize the risk of losing content and images. Some updates need to be performed as frequently as weekly. Who is going to take care of these updates and at what cost? Ignoring the updates can yield a crashed website, when trying to bring the site up-to-date by taking a large developmental step. Also, the security updates keep the various website components functional and working together; updates provide protection from hacking as well. On the other hand, if you choose to have an HTML site, these constant updates are not needed and site security is more risk-free. Both CMS and HTML websites require similar costs to develop; the financial difference is in the ongoing updates.

Do I want to own or delegate ownership of my website?
With some website platforms, you pay to have them developed to your specifications; other websites you have built to your specifications, within parameters limited by the website template. These limited website templates may also require forfeiture of the right to own the site.

With websites which are not owned by the business which they represent, owned by third parties, the website only operates as long as you keep paying the vendor. As soon as you stop, you cannot move the website to another server of your choice. This type of website is in a proprietary format, which only works as long as you keep it on the developer’s server.

Another consideration point with websites you do not own is the fact that these types of websites are generally less flexible to accommodate future customization. And remember, customization also means differentiation—more ways for you to look different than your competition.

Facebook, ever-evolving, is releasing another new feature to expand the way individuals and businesses can choose to appear to the public. Users can now upload a cover video to their page instead of a cover photo. Facebook chose to add this option after recognizing many social media users prefer to consume content in video format. Other video-based updates to Facebook have included Facebook live, profile videos, and Facebook stories.

For cover videos, users upload their video the same way they upload a cover photo. The suggested dimensions are also similar, at 820 x 312 pixels. Cover videos can be anywhere from 20-90 seconds long, looping and changing any way the user wishes. The video will start to play as the cover page is loaded, and will be silent unless the user decides to unmute the video through the mute/unmute icon in the lower right corner (as with other Facebook videos). Cover videos will have most of the same requirements and guidelines as cover photos, but are sure to change the way users engage with Facebook pages.

Facebook stated, “By making cover video available, we want to help you create more engaging interactions and drive more rich experience for your audience by letting you spotlight your creative content in one of the most prominent spaces: your Page cover. This feature is still in early testing, but we expect it to roll out more widely soon.”

Cover videos were available to about 80 percent of Facebook as of June 16th, but will continue to reach the remaining pages soon. Remember, more viewers come in contact with your posts versus visiting your page.

As June arrives, LinkedIn’s Pulse application leaves. This social media managing tool gave users several different methods to keep in touch with their colleagues, stay in the loop with the latest industries, and read up on trending news at companies. Users could save articles and like stories to easily share with their network. Notifications alerted the user to breaking news and when their connections were mentioned in the news.

​However, LinkedIn’s Trending Storylines, new technology announced on March 22nd, is now completely replacing Pulse.The LinkedIn Corporate Communications Team wrote May 3rd, “With the recent launch of Trending Storylines and the popularity of our relaunched feed experience, we’ve created a single destination to stay in the know on timely issues, news and what’s happening in your professional world. As such, we’ll no longer be supporting the Pulse app as a standalone experience as of May 31, 2017.” There is no effect on users’ abilities to post on LinkedIn, and users can still customize their feed preferences from the mobile control menu on each post — tap on the three dots in the top right corner.

​Trending Storylines, much like Pulse, is focused toward helping users discover and discuss news, and ideas from an enormous and diverse range of professionals. The LinkedIn team redesigned the feed experience so that in addition to the main LinkedIn feed, users also have access to Trending Storylines. This provides users with a completely customized experience made using a combination of algorithms and a team of editorial assistants. This means that if you work in marketing and advertising, you may see a post concerning business marketing, current trends, or webinars on improving writing and techniques to boost productivity inside and outside the workplace. Tomer Cohen, staff at LinkedIn, writes, “Each storyline will also have a unique hashtag associated with it, making it easy for you to join the conversation and add your own take on the issue. As the conversations evolve, we will continue to ensure you’re seeing the latest perspectives.”

​Moving forward, when users continuously like and search certain topics, Trending Storylines will refine the LinkedIn Feed to reflect users’ personal interests. You can find Trending Storylines on your mobile homescreen under the Trending tab.

In addition to holiday greeting eblasts, we receive blank white-page eblasts throughout the year from many businesses, including Fortune 100s.

When the image display is not turned on by the email recipient (many email clients’ default settings are to block images and many users have their own preferences set to block unknown images in their emails), one of two effects happen:

1. Only the words are seen. (This occurs when the words are in text form outside of an image.)

OR

2. A blank white page is displayed. (This occurs when the wording is placed within an image as a part of that image.)

The blank white space can be prevented. When you are designing an eblast body, make sure your copy is not embedded within an image, just in case the image is blocked on the receiver’s end. Also, choose words which will entice the viewer to turn on the “display images,” to show your complete message.

Email Marketing is one communication channel to use to keep connected with your prospects and customers. Five to seven communication channels are needed to keep your business top-of-mind by your customers. To gain performance results, emails should be customized to represent your business, graphically designed for digital space, and followed by actions taken from resulting reports.

CUSTOMIZED – Your business should be reflected in the visual of the email. It should not look like your competitors’ emails. This is an opportunity to further brand your business – – placing a visual in the minds of the consumers.

GRAPHIC DESIGN – Working in the digital space comes with different specifications. For example, words used in the email have to be designed outside of the graphic or a blank white email will be viewed when consumers do not have their email display function chosen.

REPORTS – After an email has been delivered, reports are generated tallying numbers of emails sent, listing opens by email address, email addresses never receiving the email (due to wrong email addresses or firewalls), email addresses clicking to your website or social media sites, and email addresses requesting to be unsubscribed. Additionally, you can see how many viewed your email on a smart phone, tablet or computer, for future communication planning. From these reports, you can prioritize whom to contact next and secure updated email addresses before you loose contacts. Unsubscribes may point to an issue of which you are unaware and which may be able to be resolved through follow-up.

Emailed holiday greetings are cost effective, avoiding printing and postage costs. They serve as a visual reminder of your business. Also, the follow-up reports can help you prioritize and clean-up your email addresses for 2017.

Mark came to us recently with a website presenting the opportunity to be updated both technically as well as aesthetically.

The site was not mobile-friendly, which was affecting his local search results and the visit experience of users. Mark wanted his site to be easily found online and simple for users to navigate once they arrived.

Mark was also seeking an update to the visual aspects of his site, the website design. Projecting his years of experience was important to Mark, as well. In addition to the site design, our designers helped update Mark’s logo and branding statement to reflect his professional stature today.

Our team worked with Mark to create a clean looking and polished responsively designed website, ready to be optimally viewed on any screen size. His newly redesigned site, with new logo and branding, works well across different devices, is mobile-friendly, simple to use, provides a productive tool for its visitors, and encourages repeat visits.

After nearly a year of brainstorming, developing and testing, Facebook finally rolled out their new “like” system this past Wednesday (February 24th). This new development was prompted by multiple requests from Facebook users for a “dislike” button to accompany the “like” button. However, Facebook’s new system goes a little more in depth than simply “like” and “dislike” options.

Now, when you see a post that you like, Facebook allows you to choose from six different reactions to express yourself. They are “like” (thumbs up), “love” (heart), “haha” (laughing face), “wow” (surprised face), “sad” (crying face), and “angry” (angry face). Facebook reactions work differently depending on what device you are using to access Facebook. On Mobile devices you have to click on the “like” button and hold to get the reactions, if you are using your mobile web browser. If you are accessing Facebook through the Facebook App, you will need to update in order to access the new reactions. If you are accessing Facebook on the desktop you just hover over the like to get the options. As of right now, the reactions are only available on the original post; they cannot be used to respond to a comment on that post.

While Facebook wanted to appease their users, they wanted to avoid simply creating a “dislike” button. CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismissed the idea for fear that it would increase cyberbullying on Facebook, something that they, among all other social media sites, try to avoid.

By studying trends in user comments, the Facebook team was able to develop these six reactions. They felt that this would appease user’s desire to be able to express themselves quickly and easily, and wouldn’t encourage cyberbullying like they felt a “dislike” button would. They were also careful to test the universality of the reactions, as the social network is available in almost every country.

But what does this mean for your business? Facebook Reactions will give businesses a new way to see how people are responding to their posted content. Page owners will be able to see exactly how followers reacted to each post using Page Insights. You can view the different reactions on specific posts in the “Posts” section of Page Insights. This will allow you to better analyze the effectiveness of your posted content, and be better able to determine what to post in the future.

Ad delivery, on the other hand, will not be affected by Facebook Reactions at this time. There will be no distinguishing between a “love” and an “angry” reaction. However, Facebook plans to take some time to learn from the roll-out of their new reactions, so it is possible that they will play a larger role in ad delivery in the future. For now, enjoy this new way to interact with your audience. Happy posting!